tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91839847195880526362018-02-14T14:48:46.240-08:00The world through my eyes...Syazana Hishamnoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9183984719588052636.post-58307041714241074422014-03-31T15:06:00.005-07:002014-03-31T15:08:54.111-07:00MY MUSLIM JOURNEY: About wearing the Hijab<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="font-family: Times, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: large;">It was a long time ago since I last wrote on my blog. So today, I decided to post something that I had written not very long ago.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="font-family: Times, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My American roommate (who's a Catholic) once asked me, “Why are there Muslims who do not wear hijab?” I tried not to be baffled when I heard this question from her. Indeed, I had thought that this day would come and I had&nbsp;kind of&nbsp;saved&nbsp;some answers with me should anyone ask this. I’m glad that I could see this coming because it gave me the chance to&nbsp;come up with some answers beforehand. It also gives me a reason to have some reflection on it, because as someone who had been wearing hijab since the age of 12, I guess you could say that there’s no reason for me to think about this since I am supposedly to be on the ‘right path’. Why do indeed some Muslims choose not to cover their aurat? Does this mean that they are the less better Muslims than the rest of the Muslims who do cover their aurat? What makes you a ‘good Muslim’ really?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">So with the answers that I had rehearsed in my head before, this is what I said to her or for some parts, wish to say to her since I probably hadn’t been able to say everything that I wanted to. Firstly, I want you to know that it’s not just wearing the hijab. For Muslims, we are told to cover our aurat, which is some parts of your body that are not allowed to be shown to the opposite gender except for your family members (yes, I’m making a generalization here). The women are not allowed to show every inch of their body parts&nbsp;except for the hands and the face. So, to cover the hair, we wear hijab. And because we can only show our two hands, that’s why you would notice that women who wear the hijab would also wear long sleeve tops. We are also not allowed to wear something that is too revealing, like too much makeup or clothing that are too tight, because then there’s no point of trying to cover your aurat really. (Should I say that this is a struggle for everyone, even for myself?)</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: large;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="font-family: Times, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then, to answer her real question as in to why some Muslim women don’t wear hijab, I said to her that maybe they are just not ready yet, that God still hasn’t opened up their heart to wear the hijab. “But do they know that it’s compulsory?” she asked. I said, of course they do, but again like I said they still haven’t been able to get themselves to wear the hijab. It might have been easy for me, because I grew up in a community where wearing the hijab is perceived as a must if you are a Muslim and a woman. Simply put, if you’re a Muslim girl/woman, then you are expected to wear the hijab. My mother and most of my women relatives, friends and neighbours&nbsp;cover their head&nbsp;when they are out in the public. Plus, the schools that I went to from the elementary school to high school were majorly consisted of the Muslim students so it’s a normal sight to see Muslim girls wearing the hijab to school. The same situation might not have happened to those women. Finally, I told her one thing that I personally feel strongly about. Wearing the hijab doesn’t guarantee that you have passed the test to being a good Muslim or a good human being in general. So it really saddens me when some people bluntly brand the Muslim women who do not cover their aurat (or wear hijab) as bad Muslims. Even if you perform everything that is required of you as a Muslim, say, praying five times a day, fasting or going to Mecca to perform the hajj, but you behave to other people (or other God’s creatures) with a badly manner, that clearly isn’t a portrayal of a good human being what more of a good Muslim. Based on my own experience, I know a few friends of mine&nbsp;who don’t wear the hijab who are actually more polite and well-mannered than some of my friends who do wear them. So you shouldn’t judge someone’s faith just because she/he doesn’t commit to one part of a Muslim’s life. Of course, wearing the hijab is compulsory; and everyone should work on improving their faith to God. We ended the conversation by her saying, “Syazana, you’re so lenient.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="font-family: Times, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I&nbsp;figure that her last words was a sort of compliment for me because she might have expected that I would give her a more conservative opinion considering that I wear the hijab. I’m not sure whether it’s because I’m being lenient or just sensible, but I guess as I grow older I come to realize that it doesn’t matter of how much ibadah that you have performed, but if it doesn’t influence you towards becoming a better person in terms of your attitude and personality, then something must have gone wrong somewhere. It could&nbsp;have been&nbsp;that Allah does not bless your ibadah because you are also committing far sinful acts at the same time or that you are only doing them to show off, Wallahua’lam. On a side note, it really warms my heart to know that my roommate wasn’t afraid of asking this question to me because it&nbsp;gave&nbsp;me a hint&nbsp;that she&nbsp;was comfortable to discuss this kind of matter with me. Maybe because I am easy and comfortable to approach? I don't know, I hope so. So for that, I really want to thank her. To me, discussing Islamic matters either with other Muslims or non-Muslims is a really good thing to do from time to time because that’s one way of&nbsp;testing how much knowledge and understanding do you really have about that particular Islamic matter despite of you having to perform it since you were so young. Wallahua’lam.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br /><br />Syazana Hishamhttps://plus.google.com/108278929913204882539noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9183984719588052636.post-47114698623040279622013-09-10T20:32:00.001-07:002013-09-10T20:32:52.595-07:00MyBOOKreview: It by Stephen King<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">Here goes another book review of Stephen King’s after the previous one. It’s not that I decided to do a reading marathon of his novels; I just couldn’t find time to write about the other novels that I read due to time constraint or should I say that procrastination also got in the way. I decided to give Stephen King another try after being slightly disappointed by his </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">The Shining</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">. It wasn’t that it was not a good story – it had many good reviews – the horror just didn’t do it for me. However, I made a great decision to read his other bestseller, </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">It</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">, as it is not only powerful in term of the story contents but the way the story is constructed is hands down genius. It is also probably one of the longest novels that I had&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">read with near to 1000 pages. It was published long before I was born, in 1986, but only until now that I have the chance to get my hands on it.</span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">What </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">It</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> is about?</span></b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp; &nbsp; The story revolves around the friendship of seven fifth grade children, which they themselves call as The Losers, in Derry, Maine. All of them didn’t begin as friends but they were united after sharing their strange occurrences to each other. Bill Denbrough, after the death (or more accurately, the murder) of his younger brother, George, found a photo album that his brother kept and saw a picture of his brother winking at him followed by blood coming out from the photograph. Ben Hanscom saw a mummy holding some floating balloons in falling snow after he got back from the library. Eddie Kapsbrak was chased by a werewolf in an abandoned house. Beverly had her bathroom smeared with blood all over, which only she could see but not her dad, after a balloon came out of the sink and popped by itself. Stan Uris was almost caught by something that he thought of a strange underwater creature. Mike Hanlon, while strolling in an abandoned field was chased down by a giant bird. Only the seventh kid, Richie Tozier, who didn’t experience any weird encounters like his friends did at the beginning. Every about 27 years, the town of Derry will be visited by the strange disappearances of young children which no one could explain. In fact, no one even noticed about the cycle of the event as in Derry, people come and go and forget. The monster which The Losers called as It did not only take one form when It goes down hunting for kids. It would appear in the form that the child’s mine is mostly scared of. In the case of Ben and Eddie, they saw It as a mummy and a werewolf because they happened to recently watch some shows which featured those monsters. As their friendship built, they had &nbsp;to face a few incidents against It while at the same time having to deal with the notorious school bully, Henry Bowers, and his few other accomplices. They finally made the decision to kill It, which they did, and swore to come back to Derry again when they grow up if It comes back. Their childhood time was set in 1958 and 27 years after, in 1985, they were called by Mike who was the only one from the Losers club to have stayed in the town. Strange news about children disappearance had started to take place again and convinced that it meant for the return of It, every one of them made their way back to Derry to make up for their promise. Everyone got the call from Mike, but only six came back; Stan killed himself in the bathtub after hearing the news from Mike. The twist for this time is that they had all forgotten what had happened when they fought with It. They forgot about how their first encounters with It were like, let alone how they fought with It. As the story grows, they begin to have recollections of what had happened 27 years back until they found out their way to the underground tunnel and killed It in its lair just like what they did when they first put It down.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><b>Why <i>It </i>is worth a reading</b></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp; &nbsp; In the beginning, I found it hard to understand how the story would go like. The first chapter started with the story of how Bill’s brother was killed by It who appeared as a clown, a form that It would usually use when making appearances to the children. It was in the year of 1958. And suddenly the second chapter jumped into the year of 1985. That was another story about a young man who was murdered in a river during the town’s fair. All of the witnesses claimed to see a clown wearing white gloves and pompom buttons on its shirt while holding some balloons doing something like biting the man’s arms. To be honest, I was a little clueless after reading the first two long chapters and thought that it was just a random move made by the author to tell about the horrendous murders performed by It in two different periods. Later in the story that I know that there was the 27 years cycle which would start with one big massacre which kills many people of that town. This information I got after reading the excerpts of a diary about Derry that Mike Hanlon kept and sought to publish to explain about the weird incidents that were taking place in Derry (which in the end he decided not to publish). And then the novel continues with the individual stories of the 6 children (except for Mike because he was the one in Derry and so who made the calls) who had become grownups now that it was the year of 1985, about what had happened to them after they left Derry and how they reacted after they got the calls from Mike to come back to Derry. There was no hint about It at first, and there was no in depth stories of what were they thinking after getting the calls. Later (probably some few long chapters after), it was revealed that they had all forgotten about what had happened in their childhood. They remembered of It and how terrible It had been, but they couldn’t quite get the stories in detail. As I read further, I begin to pick up details as they began to regain their memory once they were reunited in Derry. At first glance, it was pretty doubtful to learn that they had nothing to recall from the memory of their childhood, especially since they were the ones who fought with It and ended the event in 1958. Yet again, they were all adults now and had their own ways, and most importantly they had left Derry. Surely their childhood moments would have faded with time even the horrifying ones.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp; &nbsp;I am such impressed of how the story goes. It would go back and forth between 1985 and 1958 and you would find yourself picking up the puzzles here and there and putting them in the right spots until you are able to finally see the complete picture and you will be thinking, “Ah, so that’s what happened.”. If there was something that I wasn’t very clear about, I know that I have the confidence in the author because from the way he writes it, he would surely make the matter known with minute details. I know that I can surely find the missing pieces that I had in my mind as I was reading, if not very soon then in the later parts of the novel. It’s not like when you watch some movies where you would have questions like “So what happens to this person?” or “What does he mean when he says this?”, I felt completely satisfied after finishing the story. The way the story was constructed felt to me as the biggest part of the novel and what makes it so powerful. To think about how he managed to put it all together like that just awed me very much. The novel alternates from a story of one character to another and from a period to another period a lot, but King successfully guides the readers and not make them lost in his storytelling.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp; &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp; &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp; &nbsp;I also found that as I read more about the characters, I’d grown to fond each of them. Every characters is very distinctive to one another and because King writes about almost the full history and background of each of them, it felt to me as if I’ve known them like I know my real friends: Big Bill as the leader of the club, Ben with his building skills, Eddie with his excellent navigation, Bev the sharp shooter, Richie the man of many voices and Stan being the smartest one. When conversation takes place between the seven main characters, King writes it in a way that makes you feel as if you are being in the same scene with them and that you are sharing the same concern that they have.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp; My initial expectation from reading the novel was simply to get haunted by the story. But I get more than that. The superior way of King’s writing adds a striking element to the novel, and it is definitely very much worth a reading. Definitely one of the best novels I had ever read.</span></div><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span>Syazana Hishamhttps://plus.google.com/108278929913204882539noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9183984719588052636.post-65080778103185820272013-06-22T18:43:00.000-07:002013-06-24T16:31:41.873-07:00APPLYING TO U.S. COLLEGES<div style="text-align: center;">Wow it has been awhile since I last wrote. I recall wanting to write about my trip to LA on the last spring break but I kept delaying until I got to a point where I didn't feel excited to write about it anymore *sigh*. Anyhow, just about two or three weeks ago, I wrote a document on Facebook about how to apply to U.S. colleges and shared it with a couple of groups that I'm in on Facebook. I felt like doing it because apparently almost at the same time I have a few friends who are in their preparation under the American degree program in Malaysia and some who had already got their scholarships to pursue their studies in the US asking me about how to literally start from the beginning upon applying to American colleges, hence I thought it will be the best to just share the same thing to everyone or else I would keep repeating over the same thing for each persons asking.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Rumbling done, let's start now.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How do I know which university to apply to?</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">You could start by surveying the schools which offer good programs/courses for your intended major.</div><ul><li>You may want to check the ranking, although you don't necessarily have to rely on it; it is always a good thing to check out the list of good schools for your major. For instance, Blossom is planning to do a major in Chemical Engineering. She could check out this list from <b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges" target="_blank">colleges.usnews</a></span></b> for Chemical Engineering</li></ul><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hkXwAvisPZw/UcYEZd1kH4I/AAAAAAAAAPU/2E_TffPPMA0/s1600/1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hkXwAvisPZw/UcYEZd1kH4I/AAAAAAAAAPU/2E_TffPPMA0/s1600/1.PNG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-chemical/spp+25" target="_blank">Link here</a></div><div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Or this one from <b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.topuniversities.com/" target="_blank">QS World Ranking</a></span></b>:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d-ciQwAI7Fs/UcYLwm6tqQI/AAAAAAAAAP0/qjNvxyKezXM/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d-ciQwAI7Fs/UcYLwm6tqQI/AAAAAAAAAP0/qjNvxyKezXM/s1600/2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2013/engineering-chemical?loc=United+States&amp;field_ranking_scores_888786=0.4&amp;field_ranking_scores_888791=0.3&amp;field_ranking_scores_888796=0.15&amp;field_ranking_scores_888801=0.15&amp;custom_ranking=&amp;save_my_rankings_data_sort=2%2Casc%2C0&amp;save_my_rankings_data_limit=50&amp;save_my_rankings_data_search=&amp;save_my_rankings_data_start=0" target="_blank">Link here</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Note: You may want to make sure that the schools that you are looking at are for undergrad NOT the grad schools because some programs might be excellent for grad studies but not necessarily for undergrad.<br /><div><br /></div><div><ul><li>And go to each of the colleges that you're interested in and check the courses that they offer.</li></ul></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">This is a comparison between University of&nbsp;Wisconsin-Madison and University of Texas-Austin.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IKxp5dhlrSk/UcYNDj0raGI/AAAAAAAAAQA/dr92D4c5MWQ/s1600/Comparison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IKxp5dhlrSk/UcYNDj0raGI/AAAAAAAAAQA/dr92D4c5MWQ/s1600/Comparison.jpg" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wisc.edu/academics/" target="_blank">Link for University of Wisconsin-Madison&nbsp;</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.utexas.edu/academics/colleges-schools" target="_blank"><span id="goog_1182430974"></span>Link for University of Austin-Texas<span id="goog_1182430975"></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Note: You can think of "School" and "College" like "Fakulti/Faculty" in Malaysian universities. For instance, in the US we might call it College of Engineering while in Malaysia it could be called as Faculty of Engineering.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What are the tests that I should take before applying?</span></b></div><div><ul><li>Standard Aptitude Test I (or known as SAT I)</li><li>Standard Aptitude Test II (or called SAT Subject Test or SAT II)</li></ul>Note: For both SATs you could start by going to <a href="http://www.collegeboard.org/" target="_blank">College Board</a>. This is where you will register for the tests. They also offer some practices and books that you can purchase to prepare for the test.</div><div><ul><li>TOEFL test</li></ul>Note: <a href="http://www.ets.org/toefl" target="_blank">Link to TOEL website.</a><br /><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><br />Some colleges require you to take more than one SAT subject test, some require you none. You have to check what they want for the application.<br /><br />Here is an example for University of Texas-Austin</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GOeDcOdr0J8/UcYTODmIzKI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/sz8oTdQFD6c/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GOeDcOdr0J8/UcYTODmIzKI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/sz8oTdQFD6c/s1600/5.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>How to apply?</b></span><br /><br />Now this part gets a little tricky. There are apparently two ways of application.<br /><br /><ul><li>First is through <a href="https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Default.aspx" target="_blank">The Common Application</a> or CommonApp for short. A lot of the colleges especially the private ones use this site. It is in fact easier because you basically have to fill in the basic information like your personal information, school activities and test scores ONCE. The difference is this one section called as <b><span style="color: #990000;">Supplements</span></b>. For this part, each colleges will ask you specific questions for short answers and long answers (or essay).</li></ul>This is an example of the <a href="https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/pdfs/uchicago-fy-supp-2012-13.pdf" target="_blank">Supplements for University of Chicago</a>. Note: look at the last page for essay questions<br /><br /><ul><li>The second way is through the college's application site. This works mostly for public/state universities like University of California and University of Wisconsin. For these universities, you can't apply through the commonapp, but you would have to go to their own specific application website.&nbsp;</li></ul>Here's an example for <a href="https://admissions.universityofcalifornia.edu/applicant/login.htm" target="_blank">University of California's application website</a><br /><br /><br />Based on my own experience applying to University of California, if you apply to more than one colleges say UC Berkeley and UCLA, you will just have to fill the application once (including the essay questions) and send the same application to both. The more you apply, the more that you have to pay; this works not only for state colleges but also when you're applying through the CommonApp.<br /><br /><br />I think I have covered mostly everything. The application process can get a little tricky sometimes so I hope I could untangle any technical problems that you might encounter and to give you the idea of what should be going on so that you can concentrate more on writing for the application.Feel free to email me with your questions if you have one. If you're currently applying, I wish you all the best!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Syazana Hishamhttps://plus.google.com/108278929913204882539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9183984719588052636.post-58283079773788737902013-03-31T18:51:00.001-07:002013-03-31T18:51:57.524-07:00WINTER QUARTER IN REVIEW<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hi and Assalamualaikum to all, it’s been a while since I last updated my blog and the reasons for that are because (1) college life is so hectic and (2) I can’t really find a good thing to talk about :P Anyhow, school just ended about a week ago and it’s almost the end of spring break. I’m so glad and thankful that it all went well, the finals and the spring break. Winter quarter was much much better than the first quarter, and I’ve experienced and learnt a lot of things. Just so if you don’t know, my college is using the quarter system instead of the more known semester system, which basically means that it is as if there are 3 months instead of 5-6 months in a ‘semester’. So here are some highlights from the whole 3 months of winter quarter</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>I'VE BEEN TAKING A LOT OF FUN CLASSES</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I didn’t get into the general chemistry class needed for my major as it was quickly filled up, and I did feel bad about myself because, how come I am not taking a Chemistry class when Chemistry is my major? So because of that, I’ve decided to take all the fun classes (my definition of classes that are not related/required for my major) for this quarter. Plus, since a Chemistry class would usually take up to 5 units, I have to find at most two other classes to compensate for that. Anyway, so I registered myself for <b><span style="color: #e69138;">Art History (Roman to Renaissance Art), Astronomy (Stars,Galaxies and Universe) and Geology (Oceanography) classes</span></b> (aside from the Calculus class) and they were terrific! To begin with, all my lecturers especially for Art History and Calculus, were the best that I had so far. And secondly, I just felt for the first time in college, that I was learning something about how the world (the universe and ocean, for my case) works like. Not saying badly about the other subjects I learnt in school e.g. Biology and Chemistry, they are very significant indeed, but I have yet to see my knowledge to take place in the real world until I actually apply them on research. So here are some of the exciting things that I learnt from the three subjects:</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y6rUiDlEXQE/UVdwKb06LLI/AAAAAAAAALs/1WL2RUbhIEE/s1600/church+of+st+anne%252C+annaberg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y6rUiDlEXQE/UVdwKb06LLI/AAAAAAAAALs/1WL2RUbhIEE/s400/church+of+st+anne%252C+annaberg.jpg" width="293" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Church of Saint Anne in Annaberg, Germany. This church from the Gothic art blows my mind by its complex and decorative vaulting</td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JurtsW-LT0Y/UVdwxqVOVcI/AAAAAAAAALw/MOVMRWmRr74/s1600/delightc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JurtsW-LT0Y/UVdwxqVOVcI/AAAAAAAAALw/MOVMRWmRr74/s400/delightc.jpg" width="361" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch from Early Renaissance in Northern Europe. &nbsp;This awes me so much through its creative rendition for every minute detail of the figures. It is so ambiguous that it can make you to look into the painting and ponder for so long<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P0IkmL6bHCw/UVjkCvtRAEI/AAAAAAAAAMo/6qlVauMnDQQ/s1600/Tides.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="185" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P0IkmL6bHCw/UVjkCvtRAEI/AAAAAAAAAMo/6qlVauMnDQQ/s400/Tides.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Study of tides from Geology class</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3DsOmNeW0ck/UVjkC69DTxI/AAAAAAAAAM0/CQnY9z1ciKo/s1600/SETI.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3DsOmNeW0ck/UVjkC69DTxI/AAAAAAAAAM0/CQnY9z1ciKo/s400/SETI.PNG" width="143" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is only a small part of what I learned in Astronomy class. &nbsp;This is considered as one of the approach for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). In 1974, this short message was broadcast to the globular cluster M13 encoded in radio frequencies. We have yet to receive any replies (which is most probably going to be here very much later, if there is any civilizations out there) &nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>MET THREE NEW FRIENDS FROM TAIWAN, NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />A good thing of getting engaged in club activities is that you’re going to meet new friends, and fortunately for me I got to meet these three friends all from different countries. It was definitely a good time, meeting up with them for dinner and snacks in between the stressful school weeks. Now I know whose place to hit when I go to these countries haha! Too bad, they are only exchange students and will be leaving this year :(</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DFIWjq7OgDA/UVduRyqTP5I/AAAAAAAAALg/1rRHlkfuCgk/s1600/IMG_1694.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DFIWjq7OgDA/UVduRyqTP5I/AAAAAAAAALg/1rRHlkfuCgk/s400/IMG_1694.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's Grace, me, Joanne and Stephanie. Hanging out with them is always a good time</td></tr></tbody></table><div><div><b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></b><b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">LESSON LEARNT; YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHEN BAD LUCK IS GOING TO HIT YOU</b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My friends especially Shark my former roommate, would definitely understand me (and probably be shaking their heads again and again) if I told them that I’d lost two bikes in two months. Okay, to begin with, I have to admit that it was my fault for leaving the bikes unlocked. Well, actually I didn’t mean to because on the first incident, I was catching up a bus and the second one, I had to go to a class when I realized that my keys were missing (this really depicted the Malay proverb, “sudah jatuh ditimpa tangga”). Sigh. Whatever it is, I could blame no one, because it was under my responsibility and I should have taken care of them better. It struck me a little because just went I left them unlocked (which I so rarely did) that the thieves found them. In memory of my bikes, Diamondback and Trek, I still hope I will find you both somewhere.</span><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fnWJpIYJnFc/UVjBFKGVOrI/AAAAAAAAAMA/jId4JbdYHYI/s1600/IMG_1063.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fnWJpIYJnFc/UVjBFKGVOrI/AAAAAAAAAMA/jId4JbdYHYI/s400/IMG_1063.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bought as a secondhand</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1QOMHf3XC8s/UVjBFunuAnI/AAAAAAAAAMM/DTsWtM8wucc/s1600/IMG_1719.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1QOMHf3XC8s/UVjBFunuAnI/AAAAAAAAAMM/DTsWtM8wucc/s400/IMG_1719.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one was brand new, lost about two weeks after purchase. Talk about how carelessness strikes you back.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>BAKING IS A WHOLE LOT OF FUN!</b></span><br /><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have recently developed a reasoning to avoid myself from being too occupied with studying (or being in the internet) and it is through baking! In the middle of the quarter, I‘ve been baking for almost every weeks that I felt I had gone out of control. I also found that it is a good way to avoid myself from buying snacks on the campus stores because I can just pack the cookies/pastries that I made from home to school.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F92Ouw4X5DQ/UVjB3I0XwjI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/-kDsa9bsukg/s1600/IMG_1779.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F92Ouw4X5DQ/UVjB3I0XwjI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/-kDsa9bsukg/s400/IMG_1779.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the baking that I did</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"></div><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>PROGRESS ON TAEKWONDO</b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I have shared, one of my resolutions for this year is to be tested for black belt. However, I figured that since I have just started after not practicing for almost 2 years before, I still need to brush up my techniques (especially my sparring) and recall all the forgotten taeguek. I have to learn Korean too, how fun. Hence, this means that I should have to wait until next year to be fully prepared as the next grading will start on August this year. So here goes my mission that I shall name as BLACK BELT 2014.</span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraph"><br /></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"></div><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>FOUND A PLACE FOR NEXT YEAR</b></span><br /><div><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully, after a very long search (well actually it was probably no more than three weeks), I have found the perfect place to stay for next year (or more accurately academic year) that is <b><span style="color: #e69138;">(1) nearest to campus, (2) with reasonable price, (3) organized and clean place and (4) friendly roommate</span></b>. Now that I could take the bane off my shoulder, I could focus on some other things like maybe looking for a job or join in a research. But seriously, the whole experience made me feel like being an adult, WHICH I am not yet! (I’m still 17!)</span><br /><br /><div class="MsoListParagraph"><br /></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"></div><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>STUDIES ARE MORE ORGANIZED (THANKS TO THE HELP OF WEEKLY AND MONTHLY ORGANIZER)</b></span><br /><div><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a college student, I have come to the realization of how significant it is of being organized with your schedule. The proof is; I can see them from my quizzes/exams results. When I was in high school, despite of the tight schedule, I had never even considered of making a timetable not even for my studies and I still could do very well in school. Well probably because I have friends who would always remind each other of what classes that we’re having tomorrow and when a particular assignment should be submitted and we all basically would have the same schedule. However, when you’re in college, you’re pretty much on your own and one could hardly have the same schedule as the other so it is very important for you to keep track of your own schedule. I recall during the first quarter, I took the college life so easily and underestimated it, that I found myself to always lose track of my readings and assignments. Alhamdulillah, I managed to change for the better this quarter.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QOyuqvm2h7A/UVjCK4rCF0I/AAAAAAAAAMY/M6BxFJ8_xLg/s1600/IMG_1587.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QOyuqvm2h7A/UVjCK4rCF0I/AAAAAAAAAMY/M6BxFJ8_xLg/s400/IMG_1587.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look at that, exam one after another, luckily I kept myself aware of them ahead of time through the weekly and monthly organizers</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"></div><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>OFFICE HOURS ARE VERY HELPFUL INDEED</b></span><br /><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have always thought that the lecturers and teaching assistants to be so generous and kind-hearted for spending their time to entertain the students and to solve their problems on the materials learnt. I didn’t go to most of the office hours, but I went more often than the last quarter. Personally, I like it a lot because you could talk to the lecturers more personally and sometimes they will give you explanations that they didn’t have the chance to do so in lectures. If you’re lucky, when no other students are using the office hour, your session will last longer and it will sometimes be more of a chatting session aside from just asking about the questions. Bottom line, this is a good resource that you should make use of if your college is offering the service.</span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">LOST A FAIR AMOUNT OF WEIGHT</b></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the winter break, I was so surprised that I lost so much weight because I had the impression that it would be the opposite. My theory is probably because I didn’t go to the dining hall for meals where I would usually have a heavy meal accompanied with a fattening dessert. I also had a few sport practices every week like taekwondo, racquetball (for my physical education class) and table tennis that it is still alright if I miss going to the gym. I probably lost over 15 pounds, life’s good.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph"><b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">WENT TO LA FOR SPRING BREAK!</b></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So this is the highlight of my winter quarter. No homeworks whatsoever and I got to visit my good friends at UCLA. Luckily that it was easy to get to places and we had so much fun hitting all kind of hot spots nearly every day when I was there. Plus, all the movie nights, Vishal and Stella were definitely excellent hosts! Since I went to a number of interesting places, I think I’ll blog about it next time.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DrK7cA8sYfk/UVjECW18QFI/AAAAAAAAAMk/KoIrTAsuA7M/s1600/IMG_2061.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DrK7cA8sYfk/UVjECW18QFI/AAAAAAAAAMk/KoIrTAsuA7M/s400/IMG_2061.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I really had a wonderful time in LA. Thanks for hosting me guys!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><div class="MsoListParagraph"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div></div><br /></div></div></div>Syazana Hishamhttps://plus.google.com/108278929913204882539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9183984719588052636.post-11585185851877988852013-02-01T19:45:00.001-08:002013-02-01T19:45:19.351-08:00SOiBAKED: Blueberry Whoopie Pie <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Greetings to everyone, last weekend was fun for me because I had my first attempt in baking, yay! So I happened to buy this book called <span style="color: #e06666;"><b>The Whoopie Pie&nbsp;</b></span>by <span style="color: #e06666;"><b>Claire Ptak</b></span> and decided to start right away. The baking is super easy and it would only take (for beginner like me) about less than 2 hours. The best part about this recipe is that you can easily substitute blueberry with other fruits like strawberry or blackberry. So here's how they looked like after they're done:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QG9hqfZ5GRA/UQdtCdtWG4I/AAAAAAAAALM/LslVn2P4yuE/s1600/IMG_1577%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QG9hqfZ5GRA/UQdtCdtWG4I/AAAAAAAAALM/LslVn2P4yuE/s1600/IMG_1577%255B1%255D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seems legit, no?</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Alhamdulillah, this could be a good beginning to my 2013 resolution. Baking is very exciting and I hope that I can develop this interest further and be very skilled at it. Like my mom said, " Baguslah ada improvement, senanglah kalau nak makan cookies boleh buat sendiri, lebih bersih dan halal. Nanti balik Malaysia bolehla buat." Thanks, Ma :)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Syazana Hishamhttps://plus.google.com/108278929913204882539noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9183984719588052636.post-3878760205669017552013-01-25T19:41:00.001-08:002013-01-25T23:41:38.579-08:00MyBOOKreview: 11/22/63 by Stephen King<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">THIS IS MY FIRST TIME DOING A BOOK REVIEW. I read a lot and during these days I try to force myself to read not that because I’ve not become interested with books&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">anymore</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp;but the fact is college life is very demanding, sometimes when you have no assignments or that you’ve finished doing them, it doesn’t mean that you’re as free as a bird. You would still have to prepare for the next class and sometimes readings for classes can consume much of your time. Now, I kind of get it when I recall the statistic about college students reading only an average of one book per year. But still, I do not want to make this as an excuse, hence I try to motivate myself to read at least one book per month.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Just about a week ago, I finished reading another novel by Stephen King called <b><span style="color: #b45f06;">11/22/63</span></b>. Yup, you got it right, the date is the title (or the title is a date, just to add to the confusion :P). It’s so troubling that whenever someone asked me what book was I reading, I would have to say out the date as in, “November twenty-second of sixty-three”. Phew! Anyway, so far I have only read three novels from Stephen King and I would say that the first novel that I read, Full Dark, No Stars is by far the best one. Well, actually it’s not really a novel, it’s actually a collection of short stories but what I really love about it is that there was not one story that I didn’t like! Now continuing to the novel here…</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r4BMWrVmhYo/UQNNPa6b8uI/AAAAAAAAAK0/A0Dy8A4zAYw/s1600/IMG_1553.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r4BMWrVmhYo/UQNNPa6b8uI/AAAAAAAAAK0/A0Dy8A4zAYw/s1600/IMG_1553.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The novel really has a nice and smart cover. This is the 'first page' of the front cover, a newspaper page reporting the&nbsp;assassination&nbsp;of JFK</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gN9nJbWy2Po/UQNNPDtLn2I/AAAAAAAAAKw/g9Ooia0W52U/s1600/IMG_1555.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gN9nJbWy2Po/UQNNPDtLn2I/AAAAAAAAAKw/g9Ooia0W52U/s1600/IMG_1555.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now, the second page of the front cover, is a newspaper page reporting that JFK and his wife, Jackie saved from the near-death incident. Pretty neat, huh?</td></tr></tbody></table><b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">SUMMARY</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The theme of the book is time travelling. It tells a story of a guy named Jacob “Jake” Epping who was entrusted by a dying man named Al Templeton - who first found the rabbit-hole which brought anyone who passes through it to the year of 1958 from the current year of 2011- to stop the assassination of John. F Kennedy (35<sup>th</sup> President of the United States). Al Templeton himself had tried to get the job done but his mission was blocked when he found out that he was diagnosed with cancer. However, there’s a twist to this time travelling adventure, every time that someone goes through the rabbit hole, it means a reset to what that person or other person before him had done when he went to the past. Pretty confusing, no? So apparently, if you happen to follow the story of the president’s assassination, you would know that a man named Lee James Oswald had become the suspect for the crime, but because he was killed before he could do any confessions/denials at all, the mystery remains of who was/were the responsible one/ones. So the story mostly features Jake making a follow up to Lee Oswald until the day he is going to shoot the president.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">CHARACTERS</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">There are a few interesting characters that I would like to highlight here. The first one is <b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Al Templeton</span></b>. Apparently, he was the guy who started all the plot of stopping the assassination of JFK. Before he even came up with this idea, he had been going back and forth to the year of 1958, to get meat supplies for his business. But soon after, he realizes that with this miracle he had found, he could actually do something that could change the world which then leads to the whole JFK idea. Next, there’s of course <b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Jake Epping</span></b>, the main character of the story. He is a high school English teacher, and somewhat is in his 30s. Personally, I would regard him as a random guy that Al Templeton chose to carry out the plan for him, as Jake Epping to me was just a normal everyday guy and had no deep attachment to the assassination of JFK. Anyhow, he is a really focused man and his bravery to take over the whole incident should be highly praised. He only went to the past three times; the first one to experiment with Harry Dunning’s family, the second and longest one to stop the assassination and the last one to reset the whole thing. A year or two before the assassination was to take place; he met <b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Sadie</span></b>, a new librarian at the high school he was teaching in the past, who then became the love of his life (or more accurately, the love of his life in the past). Both of these characters were married to somebody else and happened to be having conflicts in their marriages, Jake with his alcoholic wife and Sadie with her OCD inflicted husband. Sadie actually plays a very important part in the JFK plan, because she was the person who helped Jake to stop Lee James Oswald, but unfortunately she was killed by Lee instead. Lastly, <span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Lee James Oswald</b></span>, the antagonist is also portrayed as a very interesting character in the novel. Despite of him being the mastermind to murder the president (in the novel), he also had a soft spot for his family especially to his daughter June. He occasionally had fights with his Russian wife, Marina, but he was also shown to treat Marina and Jun with love and affection. The whole plot of assassinating JFK to me was because of his concern of the political corruption in the United States at that time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">WHAT I LIKE</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">First experience of reading a time travelling novel, which is not bad</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">Stephen King did a thorough or at least to me a convincible research of the settings involved and the background of Lee James Oswald</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">It brought suspense at the end of the novel, just when I thought that the novel was going to end with some typical or unimportant things at the end, apparently the last 20-30 pages were the most intense part. The last part is kind of disturbing too</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">Delicious twist</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">The use of metaphors such as “the past harmonizes itself”, “the past is obdurate” and “the butterfly effects” to portray how the past acts to stop anything that wants to change it</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">The fact that JFK is one of my favourite presidents adds to the anticipation, although the novel doesn't tell much about the president</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">WHAT I DON’T LIKE<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br /><br /><ul><li><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Some scenes always jump to the XX scene or pound cake as they (Sadie and Jake) call it which got my eyes rolling every time.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">At the end, after the whole thing, Jake was torn between his love for Sadie and his supposed duty to save the world.</span></li></ul><div style="text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All in all, I would give this novel 3.5 out of 5 stars!</span><o:p></o:p></span></b><br /><b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>Syazana Hishamhttps://plus.google.com/108278929913204882539noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9183984719588052636.post-22615833306682824912013-01-19T19:22:00.002-08:002013-06-23T12:29:26.707-07:00My 2013 resolution<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">I know it's kind of late to post something like this as we have already passed the mid of January. But never mind, I just want to share my this year's resolution to the viewers. Never in my life before had I come up with some kind of list of what I want to accomplish of that certain year, but anyhow I feel that this year could be the beginning of it. Also because of the fact that I'm now in college, I should take my life much more seriously but at the same time not missing the excitement of life. I challenge myself to post this on public, thinking that if somehow anyone who happens to read this asks me anytime later in this year about this, at least I will get reminded. So here they are:</span><br /><br /><ol><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take the black belt test. (I have procrastinated too much!)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Keep track of my schedule and money</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Join a marathon/long run</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Accomplish at least 5 things everyday</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Read Quran at least once a day</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Get at least A for every classes</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Work out 4-5 times a week</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lose weight at least 7-10 kg</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Learn how to bake</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Go to an event/meeting/class 10 minutes earlier</span></li></ol>Syazana Hishamhttps://plus.google.com/108278929913204882539noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9183984719588052636.post-43963650485008813852013-01-14T14:12:00.001-08:002017-06-28T07:09:22.410-07:00PERMATApintar: From the inside<br /><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">A lot of my friends from this program would probably agree with me: when someone asks us which school are we from, it’s the beginning of</span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">a hard-to-explain effort. I personally would have just answered, "Some school in Bangi". Only when they start to ask further would I explain into details that I study in the PERMATApintar program, and our school is literally located in the UKM. The responses would usually be either of these two : “Program PERMATApintar tu macam mana, eh?” or </span><i style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">the total opposite </i><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">of it “Owh, PERMATApintar, mesti pelajar pintar ni kan?”. It is exhaustive - I have to admit - that as the pioneers of this program, we carry such a big responsibility trying to keep up with other people's expectation. Since PERMATApintar is such a new and young program, I figured that I could give a hint to the public based on my personal experience being in this program. Just to be clear, I won’t be bragging about the program's&nbsp;history and its background as I’m pretty sure that you could obtain these from PERMATA official website. What I'll be sharing is some insight from how the program were for me to how it had shaped me to where I am so far. Here we go.</span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>HOW DID I GET INVOLVED?</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">It started out when I was in Form 3 (in 2010), when out of the blue, our teacher told us that we were going to sit for some online test. I didn’t know what it was for, nor had I ever heard of PERMATApintar program before, so I just gave it a go because well, firstly it was compulsory for all of us and because this online test sounded really interesting. About a month or two later, a handful of students including me was told that we had passed the first test and that we would be taking a subsequent test. We were told further that if we were to pass this test, we would be offered a chance to attend the holiday camp, or officially known as the&nbsp;<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Program Perkhemahan Cuti Sekolah PERMATApintar</span></b>. As an addition, the Form 3 students would also be invited to a 3 days camp before the beginning of the holiday camp called <span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Perkhemahan Khas Sains dan Matematik</b></span>, a stage where you will be further evaluated in order for your admission to the newly established PERMATApintar school which was named&nbsp;<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Program Pendidikan PERMATApintar.</b></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><b>PROGRAM PENDIDIKAN PERMATApintar</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">As a very very short summary to what happened in the following month, I managed to get into the holiday camp and hence the math and science camp (since I was in Form 3) and soon I was offered for a place at the school. I was such in a huge dilemma to decide between staying at my current school at that time which was already a top notch school (it was MRSM Langkawi) or pursuing this program that was only beginning and risking my own future? Following my quick instinct, I ended up choosing to go to this new school, hoping that I might gain better and improvised education catered more suitably for me as it had promised. I swear the feeling that I had was like being a kamikaze throwing herself into a huge uncertainty.</span></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">THE CURRICULUM</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">This table below is a full summary to how our curriculum was. Keep in mind that this was used for the duration that I was there which was between 2011-2012 so the curriculum might change for the succeeding students.</span></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QDwBw3HUMFc/UPOKYNG83pI/AAAAAAAAAII/9Mne7qMfPmI/s1600/ppmt_komponen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QDwBw3HUMFc/UPOKYNG83pI/AAAAAAAAAII/9Mne7qMfPmI/s1600/ppmt_komponen.png" /></a></div></div><b style="color: #a64d79; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"></b><br /><ol></ol><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #741b47;"><u>Academic component</u></span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><b></b></span><br /><ol><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><b><li><span style="color: #351c75;">Core curriculum: SPM - &nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Our core syllabus was based on the syllabus provided by the Ministry of Education (MOE, or KPM) with ALL THREE science subjects; </span><span style="color: #b45f06;">Chemistry, Physics and Biology</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and the rest; </span><span style="color: #b45f06;">Bahasa Melayu,Bahasa Inggeris, Sejarah, Pendidikan Agama Islam/Moral, Modern Mathematics and Additional Mathematics</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">. So how does this make it different from the other schools? The two next items will tell you why.</span></li><li><span style="color: #351c75;">Accelerated curriculum : Advanced Placement (AP), O level, A level, Standard Aptitude Test (SAT) -&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-indent: -144px;">When we first learned Biology and Chemistry, we were learning according to the Advanced Placement syllabus which basically means that the materials that we learned were more in depth and advanced comparing to the SPM syllabus. These two syllabi roughly have the same topics but as I said, the AP syllabus is more accelerated. If I were to tell you more about the AP it would have been kind of dragging and misleading from our main point here, so I would highly recommend you to feed your curiosity by yourself (i.e. Google). Anyway, we didn’t touch the O level and A level contents because I’m pretty sure that they also have different curriculum structures. We stopped learning the AP syllabus after a few months when suddenly the school started to stick with the SPM realizing that all of us would have to take the SPM anyway. If you're thinking that this might be another plan gone wrong, let me remind you that this school had just begun and it still needs a whole lot of adjustments before it can finally settle down with one final curriculum. Maybe the school would start again with the AP or maybe they would even extract the A level courses, yet again these will all take time</span></li><li><span style="color: #351c75;">First year college courses -&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-indent: -144px;">During my time, the students were only offered two mathematics courses from the Science and Technology Faculty of UKM which are&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #b45f06; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-indent: -144px;"><b>Linear Algebra and Calculus</b></span><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; text-indent: -144px;">. For my batch, we had to learn Calculus during the second semester of our first year and Linear Algebra on the first semester of our second year. We were taught by the lecturers from the faculty and personally, I think the courses were very challenging yet they were also very exciting.</span></li></b></span></ol><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><b></b></span></div><div><ol><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"></span></ol><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><u><b>Foreign language</b></u></span>: We also had to take foreign language classes which again were taught by the linguistic lecturers from the university. So far, the languages that we had to learn are <span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Japanese and French</b></span> with the learning duration of about one semester per language, pretty much similar to mathematics courses above.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><b><u>Scientific Project/Research</u></b></span>: At first, I bet most of my friends would agree with me if I say that this component is the one that we mostly feared of. But after the end of the whole thing, I personally admit that this is actually the best part of the whole program. So apparently here is how this research component works like: Each students would be assigned with a research mentor (a professor or lecturer from the university) to work on a scientific project. (A group of my friends had Datuk Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar as their mentor, what the heck!) The students will be divided according to their field of interest and some would have to work in groups or pairs or for some people like me, individually. We had to consistently keep up with the meetings with these mentors to plan and design our projects. It all literally depends on what you and your mentor have decided for the project and the time length for a project from another would then differ. At the end of the whole research, you would then have to write a thesis and do a presentation at a convention that would be held near the end of your study. I recalled when I first held my printed thesis that I felt like my newborn child, I almost shed a tear out of the feeling of triumph and satisfaction (sorry for the emotional interruption)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><b><u>Portfolio Evaluation</u></b></span>: You would also have to submit a portfolio of yourself to the counsellors at the end of the study to be evaluated and counted for the total point.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><u><b>Co-curriculum</b></u></span>: We were lucky enough to have the chance to reside on the campus as we had the opportunity to be offered with art and cultural classes from Pusat Kebudayaan UKM. Some of us got to do <span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>theatre, dance, gamelan, angklung, orchestra, choir</b></span> etc. We also had sports and uniform bodies such as <b><span style="color: #b45f06;">bowling, Police Cadet, Red Crescent Society, golf, horse-riding (I know), basketball, tennis</span></b> and some others. Another form of co-curriculum that we got to do is by participating in competitions. A few of my very fortunate friends were chosen to participate at the international level based on their projects and academic achievement and went to places like Dubai, Jeju Island of Korea and Johns Hopkins University in the United States. Sadly, I’m not one of them but never mind, not my luck maybe. We also had the opportunity to compete with other schools through language festivals like pantun and public speaking. The most interesting part about this is that, instead of relying to the teachers to choose students to represent the school, you mostly could sign yourself up for any events that might interest you. Screening tests might be held, but your chance of participation is very high (since you're the one who come up with the idea)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><b><u>Identity development</u></b></span>: This is actually the lightest component of all to my opinion. We basically would have to attend a session of identity development for every week where we would have guest speakers coming to the school to share their knowledge and experience on certain fields to give us insights and ideas on how we should prepare ourselves for the future. Once, for a few weeks, we had grooming sessions by a professional teaching us how to present ourselves by the way we dress and communicate. Ain’t we all love that? For this component, we also were sent to boot camps where we would have to not only experience psychological but physical trainings. We had two camps, one for each year, I really like them both; they felt like a brief getaway from the heftiness of the school life.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A45B2RdqgjE/UPOd874_iVI/AAAAAAAAAJw/ynLuYz15H-Q/s1600/313581_271573066190832_8118922_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A45B2RdqgjE/UPOd874_iVI/AAAAAAAAAJw/ynLuYz15H-Q/s1600/313581_271573066190832_8118922_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A picture from the first camp</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vbNGcnPy5nE/UPOeaeRpC1I/AAAAAAAAAJ4/xdo31YXN9yI/s1600/IMG_0650%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vbNGcnPy5nE/UPOeaeRpC1I/AAAAAAAAAJ4/xdo31YXN9yI/s1600/IMG_0650%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm totally going to do cave trekking again after this</td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">And that my friends, is the end of the brief story that I could share regarding the program. Sure there’s MUCH MUCH more to tell, but after all of these, I pretty much can assure you that you would already have the basic knowledge of how it is like. Just to add to the excitement, I would also love to conclude my personal recounts after about one year and 8 months of being in Program Pendidikan PERMATApintar.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Having to bring phone and laptop to school</b></span>. It may sound a little childish to be so excited over this thing but I have to tell you that it is really convenient and helpful to have these tools to aid our learning (and also communication). After all, it is also a good practice for us to learn to cope with having to bring technology to school, because we learn to control ourselves and know what to expect of when we become too carried away by them e.g. not getting to finish the assignment, lack of sleep, doesn’t have enough time to study.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2s_eY_7sY7U/UPOVo4Jf2PI/AAAAAAAAAIY/EV2PrvYFvP0/s1600/IMG_0034%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2s_eY_7sY7U/UPOVo4Jf2PI/AAAAAAAAAIY/EV2PrvYFvP0/s1600/IMG_0034%255B1%255D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is not a&nbsp;kindergarten, really. And ignore the pictures on my laptop screen, I was just checking out some cars, apparently.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>MY GOOD FRIENDS!</b></span> For the first time in my life, I had the opportunity to mingle with friends that come not only from different races but also states as far as Sabah, Sarawak and Kelantan. Just by naming these states, I could imagine the faces already. We had such good memory and time together, of offending each other mostly (haha, that’s what friends do all the time). I got to learn a lot from their culture and was at times left in awe by their courage and capabilities and cuteness (yes, I’m talking about you Avra). I had such an awesome roommate, I think the most awesome that I’d ever had up until now hahaha.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iM8daNY8CzU/UPOZvQ5jZJI/AAAAAAAAAIo/13oL5wik18w/s1600/IMG_0160%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iM8daNY8CzU/UPOZvQ5jZJI/AAAAAAAAAIo/13oL5wik18w/s1600/IMG_0160%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My awesome classmates.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6RZCoAU8Hig/UPOaBTZIBsI/AAAAAAAAAIw/qFHSdtN5dy4/s1600/IMG_0986%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6RZCoAU8Hig/UPOaBTZIBsI/AAAAAAAAAIw/qFHSdtN5dy4/s1600/IMG_0986%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Friends coming over to my house</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>My research project</b></span>. Thinking about this gets me emotional again, after months of hard work in the lab, I finally get the research done by myself and of course with the strong support of my mentor and her research assistant and also credit to the instructors who without fail had been willing to take me almost every day to the lab. I got to carry out my research project by using one of the labs at the Engineering Faculty in UKM, working alone for my project alongside a PhD and a graduate student. At times when I couldn’t get to understand one of the processes that I have to carry out, I was fortunate to have them working in the lab too as I can easily ask them for guidance. Although I didn’t get to present my project at the convention as I had to leave to United States earlier before, I thanked Allah for giving me the courage to carry out the assignment successfully.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ksr4jVY6TEk/UPOafL0ycGI/AAAAAAAAAI4/oO5-yQh2A-E/s1600/IMG_0405%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ksr4jVY6TEk/UPOafL0ycGI/AAAAAAAAAI4/oO5-yQh2A-E/s1600/IMG_0405%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">One of the set ups that I have to work with.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5EwlQg2xZ-A/UPOauDoB5ZI/AAAAAAAAAJA/pTsGTHL4QyY/s1600/IMG_0461%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5EwlQg2xZ-A/UPOauDoB5ZI/AAAAAAAAAJA/pTsGTHL4QyY/s1600/IMG_0461%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sometimes when there was no other people working in the lab, &nbsp;I got to have the lab on my own! Is this awesome or what?</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Fast track program</span></b>. Out of my surprise, after the first semester of our first year in the school, a group of students were called out for a meeting and informed that we were offered for a fast track program. The idea of this program is that we would have to prepare for the university applications only for the United States to pursue our majors in pure science or mathematics. If we are accepted to any colleges, and passed the interview for our scholarships, we get to dismiss ourselves from SPM. So this means yay! you would think, but yay! comes with a price, a really heavy one. Again, I was hit with dilemma because I’ve always prefer to study in the United Kingdom over the States. But I made up my mind, and probably again became a kamikaze, because I felt that it was a chance of a lifetime. Over the next three months, the lives of 15 of us, were being thrown upside down, juggling between the school life (final exams, assignments and research projects) and the preparation for TOEFL, SAT, SPM (for BM only)</span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">&nbsp;and university application. Alhamdulillah, to cut the long story short, I was offered for admission to the University of California, Davis to major in Chemistry so as the rest of 14 others in some other prominent colleges in the United States.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WQiIR6-0Cgk/UPOcD9Kk2zI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/36XroEMAnuU/s1600/306197_3315831465990_1009529144_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WQiIR6-0Cgk/UPOcD9Kk2zI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/36XroEMAnuU/s1600/306197_3315831465990_1009529144_n.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">Who are those people sharing the stage with TUN DR MAHATHIR? Wait, the left one to Tun Dr M is familiar, hahaha it was me! (astaghfirullahalazim..) This is truly the most unforgettable moment that I will treasure for my lifetime. The chance to not only meet Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad but also having the opportunity to interview him in a talk program. I was so overly excited when we were informed that Tun Dr. Mahathir would be visiting our school and that he would also be giving a talk to all of us during the event, but when I was told to become the moderator, I died of happiness. InsyaAllah I will try to make a post regarding my experience of interviewing him directly (since I’ve already started blogging)</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ynlGXA1Hpec/UPOdHLbCCtI/AAAAAAAAAJg/ekX221_tneA/s1600/534679_3303769924459_289133706_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ynlGXA1Hpec/UPOdHLbCCtI/AAAAAAAAAJg/ekX221_tneA/s1600/534679_3303769924459_289133706_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's an up close picture. If you think that I'm showing off, well, I am.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Finally, another favourite event of mine is when I was selected to become one of the&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 18px;">panelists</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">&nbsp;alongside Kevin (my BFF haha!) and Asyraf as the moderator in a forum with a Nobel Laureate, Prof Muhd Yunus, who came to visit our school. We were discussing over a topic of “How to make the world a better place?” (pretty much like that) and I got to talk about the topic that I love the most which is the environment!</span></span></span><br /><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A0PoLfMqqJw/UPOdmxotFpI/AAAAAAAAAJo/RshUVx-Pe_s/s1600/299991_10150352677967419_7287074_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A0PoLfMqqJw/UPOdmxotFpI/AAAAAAAAAJo/RshUVx-Pe_s/s1600/299991_10150352677967419_7287074_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It was truly amazing getting to meet him. You should learn the story about this humble yet extraordinary man.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">It is definitely a difficult task to compile all of my experiences in the program in this one post but I hope if you happen to read up until this point, you had gained slightly more information about this program. It had totally changed my life in such an enormous way, and I am thankful and thankful to Allah for directing me to the decision to choose this program at the beginning. Maybe I’m still very inexperienced and naïve but at least I’ve become much clearer of the duty that I have for my own country. This seems like a very big task- it is - but InsyaAllah I will give my all to make this happen!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>Syazana Hishamhttps://plus.google.com/108278929913204882539noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9183984719588052636.post-41115233613245406412013-01-12T17:30:00.000-08:002013-01-20T14:11:53.489-08:00THE TRIP TO NEW YORK<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING...</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h2><h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Out of my expectation, during my winter break, I joined my good PERMATA friends at Rutgers University in New Jersey for a few days trip to New York. Why is this to my surprise? Well, I wasn't expecting myself to be as far to the east coast of the States during the last college break as my initial plan was to go to Los Angeles. What I had in my mind was, I should tackle the near places first e.g. LA, San Diego, San Francisco first before going anywhere further, but oh well, New York is even a much better idea than LA :p So here are some of the recollections from my totally fun trip!</span></span></h2><h2><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: small;">THE FIRST DAY</span></span></h2><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">I didn't go to New York yet during my first day of staying with my friends. Elena and Jah alongside Afi (or should I say, KAK Afi, haha) brought me for a tour around their campus. As deserted as my campus in Davis (most likely because everyone had gone back home for Christmas), it was as if we owned the place! (no, I'm just exaggerating). Anyway, I like the buildings and the roads on the campus, the roads somehow reminded me of the ones in Putrajaya. Unfortunately, since it was days before Christmas, most of the shops were closed so you could barely see a living, i mean people. The campus is composed of a few areas and to get from one to another, fear not they have buses going back and forth, well of course. I know this is somewhat misleading, but the most exciting thing they showed me was this...</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6NOEyolJcaQ/UPEpgGI2_YI/AAAAAAAAAEg/u65fCyRSwZU/s1600/IMG_1436%5B1%5D.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MISS SANDY what had you done?! Look at how the ground were being pulled together with the root &nbsp;of the tumbling tree...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Apparently, this is the aftermath of the Hurricane Sandy which hit the Northeastern part of the States last year during the late October. My poor friends here in New Jersey had to be evacuated from their dorms to avoid any mishaps a.k.a being whipped away by the hurricane.<br /><br /></span><br /><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>NOW OFF TO NEW YORK</b></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm very lucky enough to not have to find a place to stay in New York as instead I could just stay with my friends in New Jersey. On our first day of the trip, we took a bus from the campus and arrived in NY in about one hour. From the time length you could tell how close is NJ from NY. Moving forward, we were all going for the trip under an agency called CityPASS. I forgot whose idea this was, but it was totally brilliant. Let me tell you real quick about how this CityPASS works like. So apparently, instead of touring to New York, having to pay to the famous attractions singly when you're entering the sites, CityPASS allows you to enter a number of attractions according to the city that you choose by paying a single amount of fee. The fee pretty much total up the amount of fees that you have to pay for the sites, but the good news is the prices are cut down and you get to save a lot! CityPASS is also offered for a number of other selected cities e.g. LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia. Once you pay for the CityPASS online, you can get the card to be sent to your home or you can also pick it up at the selected pick up points of that particular city. Simply, present the card at the selected attractions, and you'll get access. Here's the link if you're interested to check it out...</span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.citypass.com/" target="_blank">http://www.citypass.com</a></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">I also happen to find out about another program that works pretty much the same as the CityPASS called Smart Destinations,</div></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.smartdestinations.com/" target="_blank">http://www.smartdestinations.com</a></div></span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Okay, this is truly misleading, I should get moving now. So the first spot that we hit was the <b><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: blue;">Empire State Building</span></b>.</span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lbEl5yH_4dc/UPEz5Xl7koI/AAAAAAAAAE4/bu6AUTg1DqY/s1600/IMG_1394%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lbEl5yH_4dc/UPEz5Xl7koI/AAAAAAAAAE4/bu6AUTg1DqY/s1600/IMG_1394%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CtWvBVXFG78/UPE1eBzVDRI/AAAAAAAAAFI/eJLHWycLRFo/s1600/IMG_1396%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CtWvBVXFG78/UPE1eBzVDRI/AAAAAAAAAFI/eJLHWycLRFo/s1600/IMG_1396%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6NOEyolJcaQ/UPEpgGI2_YI/AAAAAAAAAEg/u65fCyRSwZU/s1600/IMG_1436%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6B6jzHxi34Q/UPEzxLH2S0I/AAAAAAAAAEw/pAMHjqXCvOI/s1600/IMG_1412%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6B6jzHxi34Q/UPEzxLH2S0I/AAAAAAAAAEw/pAMHjqXCvOI/s1600/IMG_1412%255B1%255D.JPG" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Luckily, since it was on the weekday, the visitors weren't as much as I had expected. The view from above could almost give you the bird-eye view of Manhattan. And yet, the day was so windy I swear I almost got blown away by the wind. Out of the madness, I'm grateful that I'm studying in California where the weather is simply just nice ;). Next, we headed to the Rockefeller Centre. But hey, on the way there, why don't we stop at the </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Museum of Sex</b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">?&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EGJoic-HGjE/UPE2EDTLWUI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/4xK_8K7C5XA/s1600/IMG_1416%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EGJoic-HGjE/UPE2EDTLWUI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/4xK_8K7C5XA/s1600/IMG_1416%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Museum of Sex - We know what you really want. Nah, not me.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Apparently, this is the only picture that I could barely take from the museum. Not that camera is not allowed inside, but simply because the pictures are too inappropriate and left me a little&nbsp;traumatized&nbsp;haha. The gift shop was interesting though, I'd seen stuff I'd heard a lot before which is pretty educative, I guess. Okay now let's really move to the <span style="color: blue;"><b>Rockefeller Centre</b></span>. Unfortunately, I didn't have any pictures taken there as my phone a.k.a my camera died (you can tell it's a smartphone) but what I can tell you about it is that we pretty much experienced the same thing that we did at the Empire State Building but this time it was during the night which gave us a different view of the city. It was truly mesmerizing I should say, we could even see the Empire State just across the building, and yet again the wind *sigh.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For the last trip of the day, we when to <span style="color: blue;"><b>Ripley's exhibition</b></span> which was not that much exciting for me as I had already been to almost the same one a year ago in Genting Highland. But still it was fun, having to spend time with my friends, definitely a good time.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WsksvA6_1YU/UPE6boE-l4I/AAAAAAAAAFo/UxSFQuoJUdc/s1600/IMG_1423%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WsksvA6_1YU/UPE6boE-l4I/AAAAAAAAAFo/UxSFQuoJUdc/s1600/IMG_1423%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The entrance to Rockefeller Centre&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh, and I forgot to add, we also visited the <span style="color: blue;"><b>St. Patrick's Cathedral</b></span> which we happened to come across. I didn't get to fully enjoy the architecture, as the church was currently renovated and there was a lot of people visiting. Counting from my visit to Vietnam, this is my second time of visiting a church in my life time. I hope one day perhaps, I could visit the famous ones in France.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZbLbQvixTH4/UPE6XSK0oiI/AAAAAAAAAFg/mKh6xeyPK6A/s1600/IMG_1428%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZbLbQvixTH4/UPE6XSK0oiI/AAAAAAAAAFg/mKh6xeyPK6A/s1600/IMG_1428%255B1%255D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside the St. Patrick's Cathedral</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">THE NEXT DAY</b><br /><b style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jumping to the second day of the trip, we all went to the <span style="color: blue;"><b>Harry Potter Exhibition</b></span> near the Broadway avenue. Cameras are not allowed inside, which totally makes sense as (1) The exhibits are really precious and (2) To avoid long lines or large crowds wanting to take pictures of/with the exhibits. To be honest, I've never been an eager fan of the Harry Potter series. I might have watched some of the movies (but not all) and probably read (not entirely) one of the novels by J.K. Rowling but the truth is I've never fancied the show that much most probably because it is too mainstream :P (what am I turning into a hipster now?) Anyway, it was definitely a well put exhibition of the show with the stories of each one of the characters, I think the most exciting part was that I got to see up close to the sets and clothing used by the characters. They are made with such delicacy and you could definitely feel the wizard-y feeling in the air.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RxBCW75k7Js/UPH3SAX4_tI/AAAAAAAAAF4/M6LSN0eveTY/s1600/IMG_1439%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RxBCW75k7Js/UPH3SAX4_tI/AAAAAAAAAF4/M6LSN0eveTY/s1600/IMG_1439%255B1%255D.JPG" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Up next, we headed to another famous attraction that I believe many of us had heard so much before which is the <span style="color: blue;"><b>Madame Tussauds</b></span>. Now, I personally think that this is the best part of the trip not only because I got to 'meet' some of the prominent figures that I truly adore but the size of the crowd is fairly tolerable too. So here are a few of the pictures that I'd taken...</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Q8ZNnSrcf8/UPH8dvsCF4I/AAAAAAAAAGI/qXZj9WeZFkg/s1600/IMG_1465%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Q8ZNnSrcf8/UPH8dvsCF4I/AAAAAAAAAGI/qXZj9WeZFkg/s1600/IMG_1465%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">JOHNY DEPP - There's not one of his acting that I don't like. Super talented!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-luaqCuufrsk/UPH8gzD3HrI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/4rH_bXv4WQI/s1600/IMG_1470%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-luaqCuufrsk/UPH8gzD3HrI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/4rH_bXv4WQI/s1600/IMG_1470%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">OPRAH WINFREY - I regard her as a part of my teenage life because I watched her a lot when I was in high school before she ended her show.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NB0m8LDVZX4/UPH8rcoHZFI/AAAAAAAAAGY/wWfxw-O9jlk/s1600/IMG_1472%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NB0m8LDVZX4/UPH8rcoHZFI/AAAAAAAAAGY/wWfxw-O9jlk/s1600/IMG_1472%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ANDERSON COOPER - He broke my (and many other &nbsp;people) heart . I'm not judging but simply because he 's gay :(</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m5tGlEMU4Fo/UPH8woQmDnI/AAAAAAAAAGg/lA7EtpZuBag/s1600/IMG_1477%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m5tGlEMU4Fo/UPH8woQmDnI/AAAAAAAAAGg/lA7EtpZuBag/s1600/IMG_1477%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PRINCE WILLIAM AND KATE MIDDLETON - Kate definitely brings envy to so many women because she's living kind of a fairy tale life by marrying a prince. But I ain't feel jealous :P</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LpFO1RPWPhQ/UPH80gyF0EI/AAAAAAAAAGo/YMRdCA5hzyU/s1600/IMG_1482%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LpFO1RPWPhQ/UPH80gyF0EI/AAAAAAAAAGo/YMRdCA5hzyU/s1600/IMG_1482%5B1%5D.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Kennedys - JFK is one of my three favourite presidents of the U.S.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-da3GAetVONU/UPH86Ew3gwI/AAAAAAAAAGw/gIITi1ANzdI/s1600/IMG_1494%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-da3GAetVONU/UPH86Ew3gwI/AAAAAAAAAGw/gIITi1ANzdI/s1600/IMG_1494%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BILL CLINTON - My other favourite president. Not just him, his wife &nbsp;Hillary Clinton is also politically active.</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-elBfCOUevqQ/UPH-vCVj6YI/AAAAAAAAAHA/DsUFDEB_oms/s1600/IMG_1500%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-elBfCOUevqQ/UPH-vCVj6YI/AAAAAAAAAHA/DsUFDEB_oms/s1600/IMG_1500%255B1%255D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">THE OBAMAS - Barack Obama, the other president that I favor.</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Judging from the line of the figures exhibited, I think there is still a lot more others that were not in the list. But we were informed that the figures would be changed every three months and to be fair enough if they were to put all of them, they would need much bigger space and of course the tickets would be more pricey. The last place that we went to was for the <span style="color: blue;"><b>NBC tour </b></span>at its studio which is also at the Rockefeller Centre. Again, for privacy purposes, we were not allowed to take pictures inside. Along the tour, we were brought to a few studios that featured some well known shows by NBC like the Dr. Oz Show, Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Honestly, these shows are not much into my favor but anyhow the tour was fairly informative.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All in all, the trip was very exhaustive but at the same time because I got to visit these amazing places, I could feel the effect less. Here are some of the things that I truly feel grateful of from my trip to NJ/NY:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><ol><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reunion with my fellow PERMATA friends. Well, even though not all of them were there, but we definitely had such a great time insulting each other after a long time haha!</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I got to meet these wonderful new friends from Rutgers. Credit to Wei Jie for becoming the head of the tour. Thanks to Afi, Aishah and Zaty for the stay.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had my first snow experience here in New Jersey. I didn't go out to play with the snow though because I wasn't feeling well on the day it was snowing. But anyway the view was so captivating. I recalled during that day I was thinking, "What is this a miracle?" hahahahaha</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I went to NY alone on the other day. My parents would freak out if they knew this, but this is totally a different story. I was actually supposed to meet my friend from Davis who also happened to be in the city but for some technical (for real) purposes, we ended up not meeting with each other. Honestly, I've always enjoyed travelling by myself despite of my parents being concern of by safety. Here's why. First, you get to go anywhere that you want without having to consider what your travelling partner/partners think of and second, you get to experience things out of your own&nbsp;curiosity. How blissful is this?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And of course, I got to experience the vibrant of the city of NY. It totally had the opposite environment from my place here in Davis. I couldn't imagine how it is like to be living or working or studying in the city. But somehow, if I happen to have the chance, I won't give up the opportunity to experience how a real city life is.</span></li></ol><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vhcO2IJhltg/UPIJje4zyLI/AAAAAAAAAHg/_7lRgkaGICQ/s1600/542095_513509412002664_805096869_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vhcO2IJhltg/UPIJje4zyLI/AAAAAAAAAHg/_7lRgkaGICQ/s1600/542095_513509412002664_805096869_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here are some of the new friends that I met; Veronica, Dale and Wei Jie.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2znU9-okO1U/UPIJqo_dJUI/AAAAAAAAAHo/OD8rYfQnz8I/s1600/IMG_1514%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2znU9-okO1U/UPIJqo_dJUI/AAAAAAAAAHo/OD8rYfQnz8I/s1600/IMG_1514%5B1%5D.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Only for a short moment.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-07KWiiIlFpc/UPIEEqunSCI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/VYUtTK2A46U/s1600/262633_512263658793906_228849262_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-07KWiiIlFpc/UPIEEqunSCI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/VYUtTK2A46U/s1600/262633_512263658793906_228849262_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We have such a HEALTHY FRIENDSHIP! (with a little sarcasm)</td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div></div>Syazana Hishamhttps://plus.google.com/108278929913204882539noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9183984719588052636.post-57974834559814416872012-08-21T20:35:00.001-07:002013-01-16T22:16:53.402-08:00A Warm Hello !!!!<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hi &nbsp; &nbsp; Hello &nbsp; &nbsp; Ola &nbsp; &nbsp; Sawadeekap &nbsp; &nbsp; etc,etc to anyone who happen to be viewing this blog of mine. This is not my first blog nor it is my second, (I think this might be my fourth) and with this new blog, I am finally determined to make this happen, to update it often, to constantly write about anything worth telling or worth sharing for and to continuously improvise the blog until I will eventually be satisfied. I would really want this to be a very beneficial and informative site to whoever who has accidentally end up here. Anyway I also hope that with my involvement in the blogging world, I will also get to learn and mature (and hopefully talk less of the craps). All in all, happy reading (if you are to) and HAVE A GOOD DAY!!</span></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><br /></blockquote>Syazana Hishamhttps://plus.google.com/108278929913204882539noreply@blogger.com0